


Work in Progress

by Mad_Maudlin



Series: The Annie Diaries [2]
Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Cat Ears, Gen, M/M, Shapeshifting, cow skrulls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-10
Updated: 2013-07-10
Packaged: 2017-12-18 08:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/877588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mad_Maudlin/pseuds/Mad_Maudlin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobody's perfect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Work in Progress

Teddy was doing dishes in the galley when he heard the shouting start; at the same moment, the lights did a spooky flicker that they really, _really_ shouldn't. He dropped what he holding and paused just long enough to wipe his hands on his pants before hauling ass to _Annie's_ main deck, because on the list of likely causes for a major disaster, he knew two of them were currently in the same room.

Indeed, it immediately became obvious that the source of the noise was coming from Loki's "room" (a former storage locker he insisted on referring to as 'the cupboard under the stairs'). America was already there, and Kate had poked her head out of her and Noh-Varr's room curiously. "What did they do?" Teddy asked, stomach sinking.

"If they're not out in five seconds, I'm going in," America declared flatly. Loki had banned her from these _tutoring sessions_ because, allegedly, she made him nervous; Billy had also sworn that any evil hijinx would be met with lightening. Still...

On cue, the doors opened, and the muffled yelling finally became intelligible. "--pay _attention_ before you start meddling--" 

"—shut up for _five minutes_ and let me think--"

"—wouldn't even be in this predicament--"

"—your stupid ideas--"

"Oh, it's my idea now, is it--?"

"-- _fucking everything up!"_

They were both red in the face; Billy was backing out the open doorway, and there were wreaths of blue-white light crackling around his clenched fists. This image of impending doom was spoiled, however, by the fact that he was also sporting _cat ears._ And a _tail._

Kate whistled sharply through her fingers and made a time-out signal. "Okay, what the hell, guys?" she asked. 

Loki (who also had a tail, and some give-away lumps under his cowl) pointed at Billy and declared loudly, "He started it!" 

"Screw you," Billy said bitterly, and stalked around the corner into the room he shared with Teddy, slamming the door behind him.

"No, really," Kate asked, turning back to Loki. "What on Earth did you two do?"

"Isn't it _obvious?"_ Loki pulled off his circlet and yanked down his cowl, freeing the cat-ears, which were flattened straight back against his hair. Since Teddy wasn't used to seeing him with the cowl down at all, the ears were not nearly as disconcerting as they probably should've been. "I was attempting to explain the finer points of matter transmutation and all he could think about was whether he can has cheeseburger." 

"Matter transmutation," America echoed dubiously.

"What, you object to the curriculum?" Loki shot back. "Magic isn't mix-and-match, it's—it's like _maths._ You have to learn long division before you can even attempt calculus. _He_ barely even know how to add."

"Okay, great," Kate blurted, before this could devolve any further. "Good plan. Except I don't recall my math classes ending in screaming and mutations."

Loki threw up his hands "It's not my fault he's emotionally unstable! I'm the victim here!"

"Sure," America said, long and low.

Loki pointed to his ears in open-mouthed outrage; his tail was puffed out like a pipe cleaner. America only rolled her eyes at him.

Teddy cleared his throat. "I'm gonna finish up the dishes and then..." He nodded in the direction Billy had just gone; it was probably best to give him a few minutes to calm down before anybody tried to talk sense into him. Plus, the dishes weren't gonna do themselves (probably). Kate gave Teddy a weary thumbs-up and fell back into her room; Loki, seeing no sympathy on any front, pirouetted grandly and shut himself up in _his_ room again. Noh-Varr hadn't even come down from the cockpit, probably because Noh-Varr had a sense of self-preservation.

When Teddy came back to their bedroom, everything was quiet; inside, Billy was curled up on his side on the bed, on top of the sheets but completely swaddled in his cloak, head to toe. A faint motion under the fabric suggested his tail was probably switching back and forth, though Teddy hadn't ever spent enough time around cats to know if that was good or not. Given that _Billy had a tail,_ probably safe to take it as not-good. 

"What's new, Pussycat?" he said, trying to keep it light.

Billy groaned and hunched up even further. "Don't," he said. "It's weird."

"So no sudden cravings for tuna salad, then?"

"I mean _bad_ weird," Billy muttered. Under his cloak, the twitching kicked up a notch. "Some of us aren't used to growing six new appendages before breakfast."

"Hey, I get it," Teddy protested. "Even I have my limits, you know." 

"Like what?" 

Despite the snotty tone of voice, Teddy resisted the urge to ruffle Billy's hair (and ears) through his hood, instead nudging his shoulder with one elbow. "We're not talking about me here."

Billy sighed, but it was a long moment before he spoke up. "I know this stuff. I _know_ I know this stuff. Or if I don't know it, I can figure it out...except when I _can't,_ and then I feel _stupid,_ and I start thinking that I'm never going to fix this, we're never gonna get to go home..."

"We're gonna get home," Teddy said automatically, as much for his own benefit as Billy's. "I get that it's frustrating--"

_"He's_ frustrating," Billy muttered darkly.

"And he's the best we've got and that sucks." Teddy rubbed Billy's arm through the cloak. "I can beat him up, if that'll make you feel better."

Billy snorted. "Think America's got that covered, actually." But he did start to uncurl a little, enough that Teddy was able to find his hand through the fabric and squeeze it. "I shouldn't let him get to me like this. I should be the bigger man."

"He's the _god of mischief,"_ Teddy pointed out. "Getting to people is kind of his thing, isn't it?" But of course, Billy blamed himself, and of course there was only so much Teddy could do about that. He squeezed Billy's hand again. "So you gonna stay the Scarlet Burrito 'till this wears off?"

There was a long enough pause that he almost expected an affirmative; but in the end Billy sighed and sat up in a series of awkward wiggles. Teddy realized he was trying very hard to avoid sitting on his tail. He lifted his hands and started murmuring, and once against the familiar blue crackle danced across his fingers-- _getitoffmegetitoffmegetitoffme--_

Teddy actually had a moment to think that it might _not_ be working before it did; Billy's hood shifted in place, and he slumped, rubbing his forehead. "Leave the actual shape-changing to me from now on, will ya?" Teddy said as brightly as he could manage, and pushed back the hood of the cloak so he could actually ruffle Billy's hair. 

Billy batted his hand away and tried in vain to get his hair to lay flat again. "You didn't answer my question," he said.

"What question?"

"You said you have limits." Oh. Right. Billy was looking right at him now, no longer pushing anything, just openly curious. "I mean, you do wings all the time, and claws, and sometimes the tentacle...thing...I guess we've just never asked you."

Teddy thought for a moment about putting it off, making something up, or just asserting he didn't want to talk about it. Billy would definitely drop the question in the near term if Teddy asked him to, though there was only about a fifty-fifty chance he'd ever let it go entirely. But then again, he didn't have any real reason to hide anything, except for maybe pride. "Cows," he blurted.

"What?"

"You heard me."

_"Cows?"_

It turned out to be much easier to explain if he addressed the story to the bottom drawer of the bureau. "Real Skrulls—I mean full Skrulls—they can become anything, right? The Avengers once fought some Skrulls disguised as cows. But until I found about, y'know, _me,_ I never thought about trying anything that wasn't basically human-shaped. So I thought I'd give...it a try."

"By also becoming a cow." Billy's forehead furrowed. "Where were the rest of us, exactly?"

"Well, I wasn't gonna do it for an audience!" Teddy protested. "Not unless I knew I could."

"And...you can't."

Just the memory of trying made him grimace. "I really, really can't. Maybe that makes me the worst Skrull to ever Skrull, I don't care. I'm strictly a bipedal, binocular vision kinda guy."

"I don't think any of us are gonna hold that against you," Billy said, patting Teddy's hand. He was even smiling a little, which meant this particular mission was accomplished: one more emotional crisis averted. For now, at least. 

Also, it gave him a chance to say things like: "I can think of something else I'd rather you hold against me, you know." He threw in an exaggerated eyebrow-wiggle and a smirk for good measure.

And that got Billy to _really_ laugh, and then lean in for a kiss.


End file.
